This invention relates to an instrument which is used by an examining physician or other medical healthcare worker to examine a patient's eye while the patient is observing indicia upon a fixation card.
When performing one type of eye examination, the examining physician observes the subject's eye through a retinscope. It is desirable at that time for the patient to move or focus his or her eye to correspond with the directions of the examiner in order to facilitate the examination of the appropriate optic structures and reflexes.
To test accommodation during near fixation, the patient must focus and refocus his or her eye. Reading indicia fixed upon a card, typically referred to as a fixation card, provides an effective means for so doing. Until now, however, the use of such a card in association with an instrument has been difficult.
One option was to have a free-standing card held at some appropriate reading distance by the examining physician with one hand while manipulating the instrument with the other hand. This, however, sometimes proves to be difficult and the card can be easily displaced, thus interfering with the examination.
Some retinoscopes are provided with external snap-on clips adapted to hold and position a fixation card in reference to the instrument. This solution, however, is not entirely satisfactory. Such clips are clumsy and awkward to use and are also subject to being bent or broken with handling and easily lost. In addition, while using such a clip, a card can become easily dislodged or misaligned. The addition of a clip to the exterior of a retinoscope makes the instrument bulky and thus more difficult to store or carry about in the pocket of a typical examination or laboratory jacket.